Officers Assaulted

The following information concerns duly sworn city, university and college, county, state, and tribal law enforcement officers who were assaulted in the line of duty in 2013 and who met certain other criteria.

Overview

In 2013, the FBI collected assault data from 11,468 law enforcement agencies that employed 533,895 officers. These officers provided service to more than 247 million persons, or 78.2 percent of the nation’s population.

Law enforcement agencies reported that 49,851 officers were assaulted while performing their duties in 2013.

The rate of officer assaults in 2013 was 9.3 per 100 sworn officers.

More information about these topics is provided in Tables 65, 66, 70, and 71.

Injuries

Of the 49,851 officers who were assaulted in 2013, 14,565 (29.2 percent) sustained injuries.

31.0 percent of the officers who were attacked with personal weapons (e.g., hands, fists, or feet) suffered injuries.

14.6 percent of the officers who were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments were injured.

10.9 percent of officers who were attacked with firearms were injured.

27.0 percent of officers who were attacked with other dangerous weapons were injured.

More information about this topic is provided in Tables 65, 66, and 70.

Times of incidents

For the fifteenth consecutive year, the largest percentage of assaults on officers (15.1 percent) happened from 12:01 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The smallest percentage of assaults on officers (2.5 percent) occurred between 6:01 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Circumstances

12.8 percent were handling, transporting, or maintaining custody of prisoners.

More information about this topic is provided in Tables 68, 69, and 73.

Clearances

Law enforcement agencies can clear offenses by arrest or exceptional means (i.e., when they can identify the perpetrator but are unable to make an arrest due to circumstances beyond their control, such as the death or suicide of the subject).

In 2013, law enforcement agencies cleared 91.6 percent of the 49,851 reported assaults on law enforcement officers.

By type of circumstance, agencies cleared the greatest percentage of assaults (93.1 percent) on officers who were responding to reports of civil disorder (mass disobedience, riot, etc.).

Agencies reported that they cleared 92.9 percent of the 15,531 assaults on officers who were responding to disturbance calls.